Paper artist, painter open exhibit

Lovely lotus: Than Van Huy works with a lotus flower in October last year (Source: VNA)

Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) - Artisan Than Van Huy, who sparked the revival of a Hue's paper flower making village, is running an exhibition of his and veteran painter Dang Mau Tuu's paintings in Hue city.

Themed spring inspirations, the exhibition displays 28 outstanding paintings by Huy and Tuu, including 14 oil paintings that Huy painted from the 1970s to now.

Huy's collection features many topics, including the zen inside lotus flowers, the beauty of his home city of Hue, and the illusion of traditional values in modern time.

The exhibition runs until the third of January next year.

The exhibition marks Huy's comeback as a painter after years working on the revival and the development of his home village's craft, the Thanh Tien paper flower making village.

In the 2000s, Huy found the ruin of the craft, which originated in 16th century, and started researching the crafts history. In 2006, he and his younger brother revived an old unique technique and used it to make paper lotus flowers.

The debut of Huy's paper lotus in 2007 brought the village craft back from extinction and the village's lotus flower and its original paper flower now have a firm market around the country.

Huy then handed over his business to to his brother and son to be a painter again. "Painting gives me the feeling of zen," he said. "I feel the world deeply from my soul with a pen in hand so coming back to art is amazing.".-VNA